Sound & Preferences
What it’s for
One panel sets how every GMI app sounds. Choose what plays your chords: a concert grand, or one of three guitars Ged Brockie recorded note by note for GMI (a Telecaster, a nylon-string classical and a steel-string acoustic). Add a bass under them. Balance the levels, shape the tone for your speakers or headphones with a five-band EQ, and set the room with reverb and compression. Set it once and every app you open sounds the way you like it.
Open it with the ⚙ button in the dock at the top of any app, or in the Sight Reader’s control bar. Everything you set is kept for your next visit.
Panel slides away, or stays open
The switch at the top of the panel decides how it behaves. Panel slides away closes it when you click back into the app. Switch it on for Panel always open and the app makes room for it, so you can play and adjust the sound at the same time. Always open works on screens 1024 pixels wide and up; on a tablet or phone the panel always slides away.
Audio
Sound
- Chords — Piano, or Guitar and then Electric, Nylon or Steel. Each guitar is Ged’s own instrument, recorded at three dynamic levels with two takes of every note, so a phrase never sounds like one note copied.
- Bass — Off, Upright, Fingered or Picked. In the chord apps it adds the bass note under every chord you play. In Practice Studio it is the backing band’s bass player.
Mix
A fader for each part, with pan and M (mute) and S (solo), and MST, the master level. Guitar is the chord sound, whichever instrument you chose. Bass is the bass. Drums is the drummer in Practice Studio’s backing band. Click isn’t in use yet. A strip that does nothing on the page you’re on is greyed out, and hovering over it says why.
EQ
Five bands, each from −12 to +12 dB: Low (80 Hz), Low-mid (250 Hz), Mid (1 kHz), Presence (3 kHz) and High (8 kHz). Start from a Preset (Flat, Jazz warm, Classical, Blues, Rock, Folk, Funk, Pop, Reggae, Bass heavy, Bright, Scooped or Air), move any band, and + Save as custom preset keeps it under your own name in the preset list. The EQ is for your speakers or headphones, so it applies in every app.
Space & Dynamics
Drag a knob up or down to turn it.
- Reverb wet — how much room you hear, from dry to wet.
- Room size — how big the room is.
- Compress — evens out loud and quiet notes. Each sound keeps its own setting: switch from Electric to Nylon and the knob moves to Nylon’s. They start at 30 for Piano and Electric and 10 for Nylon and Steel, so the acoustic guitars stay open and natural.
- Stereo width — how wide the chord sound spreads between your left and right speakers.
What works where
| Page | What the Audio tab controls |
|---|---|
| Chord Lab, Chord Architect, Progression Lab, Key Builder, Structure Lab, Sketchpad and Cycle Wheel | Everything except Drums and Click: the chord sound and bass, their faders, EQ, reverb, room size, compression and width. |
| Sight Reader | The playback sound (Piano, or Electric, Nylon or Steel guitar), its level, EQ, reverb, room size, compression and width. The Piano and Guitar buttons in the Sight Reader’s own control bar do the same job. |
| Practice Studio | The backing band: the Bass sound, the Bass, Drums and MST faders, the EQ, and Reverb wet, Room size and Compress for the band. Chords and Stereo width are greyed out: the band has no chord player yet, and it plays in the centre. The band also has its own Mix and Tone controls under Play — see the Practice Studio Guide. |
Display
Music font
Choose how the music is drawn: the clefs, noteheads and accidentals on every chord card and staff across the GMI apps, and the whole score in the Sight Reader. Press a card and the music on the page changes straight away. The panel stays open, so you can click through the fonts and compare them on the chords in front of you.
| Font | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| GMI Standard | The GMI look, and the default. |
| Bravura | Classic engraving, the font of Dorico. |
| Leland | Engraved, the font of MuseScore. |
| GMI Engraved | Crisp, formal engraving. |
| Leipzig | Clean and light. |
| GMI Classic | Traditional engraving. |
| Gootville | Rounded and bold. |
| GMI Bold | A copyist’s hand, as on a show pad. |
| GMI Handwritten | The real-book look. |
| GMI Lead Sheet | Rounded jazz handwriting. |
| Petaluma | Handwritten, from Dorico. |
| GMI Ink | Bold marker pen. |
With the handwritten fonts, the Sight Reader also writes chord symbols, tempo and expression marks in a matching hand, so a piece in GMI Handwritten reads like a chart from a real book. TAB and chord diagrams keep their usual clear numbers in every font.
Signed in, your choice is kept with your account and follows you to every device. If you’re not signed in, it’s kept in the browser you chose it in.
Left-handed diagrams
Mirrors chord diagrams and neck views for left-handed players. TAB and notation stay as written. Signed in, it’s kept with your account, so it follows you to every device.
Interface
- Animate help button — the ? button pulses the first time you open each app, so you know where help is. Switch it off once you know your way around.
Acct
Your name and membership (Free or Pro), and Sign out. WordPress asks you to confirm before it signs you out.
Where your settings are kept
Sound, mix, EQ, your custom presets and the panel’s settings are kept in the browser you set them in, so each device keeps its own: handy when your laptop speakers and your studio monitors need different EQ. Signed in, your music font and left-handed diagrams are kept with your account.
Try it
- Open Chord Lab, press ⚙ and switch the panel to always open.
- Play a chord, then switch Chords between Piano, Electric, Nylon and Steel and play it again on each.
- Turn Bass to Upright and hear the root under the chord.
- Try the Jazz warm and Classical EQ presets on your own speakers, then adjust one and save it as your own.
